Possessive determiners — meu, minha, seu, sua, nosso, nossa — answer "whose?" and sit in front of a noun: meu carro ("my car"), nossa casa ("our house"). They look like English my, your, our, but they follow one rule English speakers consistently get wrong: in Brazilian Portuguese, a possessive agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner. This page covers their determiner use (before a noun); for their pronoun use (o meu é maior) see the possessive pronouns page.
The forms
| Owner | masc. sing. | fem. sing. | masc. pl. | fem. pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu (my) | meu | minha | meus | minhas |
| tu (your, regional) | teu | tua | teus | tuas |
| você / ele / ela (your/his/her) | seu | sua | seus | suas |
| nós (our) | nosso | nossa | nossos | nossas |
| vocês / eles / elas (your-pl/their) | seu / de vocês | sua / de vocês | seus | suas |
A note on teu/tua: these go with the pronoun tu, which is regional in Brazil — common in the South, in parts of the Northeast, and in Rio (often mixed inconsistently with você verb forms). In most of the country, seu/sua covers "your" and teu sounds regional or intimate.
The core rule: agree with the thing, not the owner
In English, third-person possessives encode the owner's gender: his (a male owner), her (a female owner). Portuguese does the opposite. The possessive matches the gender and number of the noun being possessed, and tells you nothing about who the owner is.
So minha mãe is "my mom" whether the speaker is a man or a woman — minha is feminine because mãe is feminine, not because of the speaker. And meu carro is "my car" for any speaker, because carro is masculine.
Minha mãe é médica.
My mom is a doctor. (minha = feminine because 'mãe' is feminine — the speaker's gender is irrelevant)
Meu pai trabalha demais.
My dad works too much. (meu = masculine to match 'pai')
Onde estão minhas chaves?
Where are my keys? (minhas — feminine plural to match 'chaves')
Nossos vizinhos são muito gentis.
Our neighbors are very kind. (nossos — masculine plural to match 'vizinhos')
The seu/sua ambiguity
Here is where Brazilian Portuguese gets genuinely slippery. The third-person form seu/sua can mean your, his, her, or their — four possible owners, one form. Because it agrees with the possessed noun, it gives you no clue about the owner.
Ele pegou o seu casaco.
He took your coat / his coat / her coat — out of context, ambiguous.
In a sentence like that, seu casaco could be the coat belonging to the listener, to "him," to some third person — Portuguese can't tell you from the word alone. In writing and formal speech, context usually resolves it. But in conversation, Brazilians overwhelmingly avoid the ambiguity with a different strategy.
The BR solution: dele, dela, deles, delas
Spoken Brazilian Portuguese resolves the ambiguity by using de + ele/ela placed after the noun: dele (his), dela (her), deles/delas (their). These are unambiguous — they explicitly name the owner — and they are the everyday norm for third-person possession.
| Owner | Possessive phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ele | o carro dele | his car |
| ela | a casa dela | her house |
| eles | os filhos deles | their children (masc./mixed) |
| elas | as ideias delas | their ideas (female group) |
Crucially, dele/dela agree with the owner, not the possessed noun — so they restore exactly the information English packs into his/her. A casa dela = "her house," a casa dele = "his house," with the house part unchanged.
O carro dele é mais novo que o carro dela.
His car is newer than her car. (dele vs dela disambiguate cleanly)
Eu adoro a comida dela; a do irmão dela nem tanto.
I love her cooking; her brother's, not so much.
A gente foi na festa de aniversário deles.
We went to their birthday party. (deles = belonging to them)
The practical division of labor in spoken BR: seu/sua → "your" (most often), and dele/dela → his/her/their. So seu casaco in conversation usually means "your coat," and you'd say o casaco dele for "his coat."
"Your (plural)": de vocês
For "your" addressed to more than one person, seu/sua technically works but is rare in speech because of the ambiguity. Brazilians overwhelmingly say de vocês, parallel to dele/dela.
Cadê o carro de vocês?
Where's your (plural) car?
A casa de vocês é linda!
Your (plural) house is beautiful!
Article optionality
Like all BR possessives, these can take an optional definite article: (o) meu carro, (a) minha casa. The bare form is the spoken default; the article-ful form is more formal or European. This is covered in depth on the "Articles with Possessives" page — the short version is that meu carro and o meu carro are both correct and mean the same thing.
Esqueci meu guarda-chuva no ônibus.
I left my umbrella on the bus. (bare — natural BR)
A nossa empresa abriu uma filial nova.
Our company opened a new branch. (article kept — slightly more formal)
Common Mistakes
❌ Sua mãe (a man, intending 'my mom') → Sua mãe é médica.
Wrong possessive — picked 'sua' thinking of his own male gender; the form must match the noun and the OWNER (eu → minha).
✅ Minha mãe é médica.
My mom is a doctor.
The deepest English-transfer error: choosing the possessive based on the speaker's gender. A male speaker says minha mãe, not meu mãe — because mãe is feminine.
❌ Esse é o carro de ele.
Incorrect — 'de' + 'ele' must contract to 'dele'.
✅ Esse é o carro dele.
That's his car.
❌ Eu vi a casa dele (meaning 'your house', talking to one person).
Wrong owner — 'dele' is 'his'; for 'your' use 'sua' or 'de você'.
✅ Eu vi a sua casa. / Eu vi a casa de você.
I saw your house.
❌ Os seus pais de vocês moram aqui?
Redundant — don't stack 'seus' and 'de vocês'; pick one.
✅ Os pais de vocês moram aqui?
Do your (plural) parents live here?
❌ Minhas pais vieram me visitar.
Agreement error — 'pais' (parents) is masculine plural, so 'meus', not 'minhas'.
✅ Meus pais vieram me visitar.
My parents came to visit me.
Key Takeaways
- Possessives agree with the thing owned: minha mãe, meu pai, minhas chaves — the speaker's gender never matters.
- Forms: meu/minha, teu/tua (regional, with tu), seu/sua, nosso/nossa.
- seu/sua is ambiguous (your/his/her/their); spoken BR uses it mainly for "your."
- For he/she/they, use dele/dela/deles/delas after the noun — these agree with the owner and remove ambiguity.
- "Your (plural)" → de vocês.
- The article before the possessive is optional ((o) meu carro).
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Articles with Possessives in BRA2 — Why Brazilian Portuguese lets you say both 'o meu carro' and 'meu carro' — when the definite article before a possessive is preferred, when it's dropped, and how this differs from European Portuguese and English.
- Possessive Pronouns: Meu, Teu, Seu, NossoA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese possessives work, why they agree with the thing owned, and how the system handles 'my', 'your', 'our', and the tricky 'his/her'.
- Dele / Dela / Deles / Delas: BR's 3rd Person PossessivesA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese uses 'de + ele/ela' to say 'his/her/their' clearly, why these forms follow the noun, and why they agree with the owner rather than the object.
- Determiners: OverviewA1 — A map of Brazilian Portuguese determiners — articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers — and the two facts that govern them all: they agree with the noun and they fuse with prepositions.
- Definite Articles: O, A, Os, AsA1 — The Brazilian definite article — its four agreeing forms, its obligatory contractions with prepositions, and the many places it appears where English drops 'the' entirely.